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Ending the Conflict: Science, Religion, and the Universe

Ending the Conflict: Science, Religion, and the Universe. With Contributions from Betsy (River) Baker, Josephine Lee, and Loreal Robertson. View of the Universe 500 Years Ago: Based on ancient speculation, the Earth was considered to be the center of the universe.

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Ending the Conflict: Science, Religion, and the Universe

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  1. Ending the Conflict: Science, Religion, andthe Universe With Contributions from Betsy (River) Baker, Josephine Lee, and Loreal Robertson

  2. View of the Universe 500 Years Ago: Based on ancient speculation, the Earth was considered to be the center of the universe.

  3. The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE) speculated that celestial objects were attached to fifty-five crystalline spheres that rotated around the Earth at the center of the Universe.

  4. Three Guiding Principles Aristotle’s Prime Mover Celestial objects are made from perfect material and cannot change their properties (e.g., their brightness). Earth is at the center of the Universe. All motion in the heavens is uniform circular motion.

  5. PROBLEM: Ancient model could not explainretrograde motion and varying brightness That celestial object is moving backwards and getting brighter. That can’t be! Point of Reference

  6. SOLUTION: Epicycles and deferents preservedguiding principles and explained observations.

  7. Movement of the Planets: As the center of the epicycle moves around the deferent, the planet moves around the epicycle. The blue line shows the apparent path.

  8. Further Refinements: To account for the detailed motion of the planets, in some cases, epicycleswere themselves placed on epicycles.

  9. The Ptolemaic Universe : Ideas about uniform circular motion and epicycles were cataloged by Ptolemy in 150 A.D. in his book theAlmagest.

  10. During the Middle Ages, philosopher-theologian Thomas Aquinas (1222-1274) rediscovered Aristotle and blended his ideas with medieval theology.

  11. The outermost sphere became the Christian heaven. Aristotle’s Prime Mover became the God of Christian theology. Earth at center represented the Christian God’s concern for mankind.

  12. Medieval Representation of Ptolemaic Universe REASSURANCE Divine power would triumph over corruption and decay of earthly things and lift the soul to an afterlife in heaven. COMFORTIndividual could locate God. Soul’s destination would be above or below. STABILITY Earth was at center. Mankind important in God’s plan.

  13. Religious Dogma: Ideas originating with pagan Greek philosophers were incorporated into the Catholic church and became dogma. To challenge this view of the universe was to challenge, not only science, but theology.

  14. Did Polish astronomer Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) get into trouble when he proposed a sun-centered solar system?

  15. No, Copernicus was not investigated by the Church because he published his heliocentric (sun-centered) theory of the universe, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, on his deathbed.

  16. Copernicus’ Universe

  17. Representation of Copernicus’ Solar System

  18. The Heliocentric System offers a simple explanation for varying brightness and retrograde motion

  19. View Comparison between Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems

  20. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) proved the Copernican theorywith his telescope, challenged Aristotle's universe and its theological-philosophical worldview, and laid the foundationsfor dynamics (the study of motion) and gravity.

  21. Sunspots Galileo observed sunspots that moved, indicating that the Sun was rotating on an axis and that it wasnot made from a perfect, unchanging substance.

  22. He used his telescope to show that Venus went through a complete set of phases, just like the Moon. This observation confirmed the Copernican system and proved that the Ptolemaic system was incorrect. What Galileo would have seen if Earth in center: What Galileo actually saw (proving Sun in center):

  23. Galileo’s Relationship with the Church: Pope Urban VIII admired Galileo's intelligence, supported him in his scientific work, and gave him permission to write about the Copernican theory as long as he treated it as a hypothesis. When Urban confessed that the Church would never accept the theory, Galileo satirized the Pope in a Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems.

  24. In that dialog, Galileo associated Urban VIII with Simplicio, the staunch Aristotelian whose arguments had been refuted in the previous pages of the work. • Convinced that Galileo had made a fool of him, Urban directed the Inquisition to move against him.

  25. Galileo was accused of challenging the Church’s authority and found guilty of two charges: • He defied the order to treat the Copernican theory as an hypothesis. • And, in so doing, he was suspected of heresy.

  26. Under threat of torture and death, he was forced to recant his Copernican views and sentenced to house arrest, where he remained until his death in 1642.

  27. Centuries later . . .

  28. In 1979, nearly 350 years after Galileo’s sentence, Pope John Paul II asked the Pontifical Academy of Science to conduct an in depth study of the controversial “Galileo Case.”

  29. By 1984, the panel’s findings were published in a series of essays entitled Galileo Galilei: 350 Years of History. The authors acknowledged that the judges who condemned Galileo had committed an error and that the Church was wrong in silencing him.

  30. Pope John Paul II spoke to the assembly about “the distinct but complementary rolesthat faith and science fulfill in human life.”

  31. He acknowledged “the emergence of complexity in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology.”

  32. And asked a question important to scientists, philosophers, and theologians: “How are we to reconcile the explanation of the world that begins with the level of elementary entities and phenomena with the [understanding] that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts?’”

  33. He concluded that“Contemporary culture demands a constant effort to synthesize knowledge and to integrate learning.... A true culture cannot be conceived of without humanism and wisdom.”

  34. Our Knowledge of the Universe Is in Its Infancy:A light-year is the distance light travels in one year. It is 9.5 trillion (9,500,000,000,000) kilometers. The size of a galaxy may be as little as a thousand light-years across or as much as a million light-years across. A galaxy contains stars, gas, and dust which are held together as a group by gravity. There may be millions, or even billions, of stars in one galaxy. There are billions of galaxies in the Universe.

  35. Let the scientists, philosophers, and theologians explore the Universe in a spirit of truth, wisdom, and cooperation – freely, intelligently, and peacefully.

  36. Online Resources: • DeMarco, Donald. "The Dispute Between Galileo and the Catholic Church." Catholic Education Resource Center. May-June 1986. Catholic Education Resource Center. 19 July 2008 http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/science/sc0043.html. • "Faith Can Never Conflict with Reason." L'Osservatore Romano. 4 Nov. 1992. 19 July 2008 http://www.its.caltech.edu/~nmcenter/sci-cp/sci-9211.html. • Golden, Frederick. "Rehabilitating Galileo's Image." Dr. S. D. Marcum Course Website. 12 Mar. 1984. Time Magazine. 19 July 2008 http://www.cas.muohio.edu/~marcumsd/p111/lectures/grehab.htm. • Johnston, George Sim. “The Galileo Affair” 6 July 2008 http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0005.html. • Rowland, Wade. "Essay on Galileo Galilei." Wade Rowland. 2003. Wade Rowland Enterprises Inc. 19 July 2008 http://www.waderowland.com/articles/galileo-essay.html. • Schirrmacher, Thomas. “The Galileo Affair: History or Heroic Hagiography.” Technical Journal. April 2000: 91‐100. http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v14/i1/galileo.asp?vprint=1.

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